


love is patient (love is kind)

by thedevilsgarden



Category: The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 08:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27348322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilsgarden/pseuds/thedevilsgarden
Summary: Elena is babysitting her nephew; Maggie stops by with food.
Relationships: Elena/Queen Maeve (The Boys)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 90





	love is patient (love is kind)

**Author's Note:**

> This ship is my new obsession and there aren't enough fics, so I will write all of them myself if I have to.

It’s Friday night, and Maggie is curled up in bed with a book, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. It’s taking more effort than it usually does to settle her mind, to actually absorb what she’s reading. She stares at the first paragraph of the novel for ten minutes, and even though her eyes flick across each line of text again and again, she doesn’t process a word. All she can focus on is how cold the bed feels without someone curled up beside her. 

Maggie gets through another page and a half, registering absolutely nothing, before she sighs and lowers the book; she’s tired, and it’s past midnight, but there is no way she’s getting to sleep. She has half a mind to head across town to Elena’s apartment and crawl into bed with her, but Elena’s sister is in town for the weekend (some work thing) and Maggie wants to give them time alone to catch up, time to do whatever sisters do. And Maggie also isn’t great with meeting new people, not when she’s in her civilian clothes, so it's best if she stays away.

When she was single, she loved having a big bed all to herself. But things are different now. Maggie hasn’t slept alone in months, not since Elena took that summer trip to Malibu with her friends, and she honestly isn’t sure she’ll be able to fall asleep without her. Not when she's feeling this strange mixture of sickness and unease.

I miss her, she realizes. I fucking miss her. (It’s ridiculous, but she does.)

Her phone buzzes on the bedside table. Elena’s name pops up on the screen, and Maggie picks up the call immediately.

“Hey.” Elena’s voice is soft, but clear, and all of the tension in Maggie’s body releases. 

“Hey,” she breathes. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, everything’s good.” There’s the sound of a mattress squeaking. “Nina’s all set up on the couch bed; we were up late talking. She asked if I could babysit Marco tomorrow while she’s at the conference.”

“Right. The conference.” Maggie stretches out, rests her head on two plush pillows; she imagines Elena lying beside her in an oversized T-shirt, her hair tousled. “How old is he again?”

“Two months.” There’s a smile in her voice. “God, he’s adorable, Maggie. He’s got these beautiful, long lashes, and the chubbiest cheeks. He’s so much bigger than the last time I saw him; he looks just like Nina, same nose, same smile.”

Maggie stifles a yawn, snuggles into her blankets. “Really?”

She listens closely, the phone resting by her ear. With Elena speaking softly to her like this, the way she does when they’re alone in her room, Maggie is finally able to relax, and she feels her eyes start to droop. Exhaustion seeps in, slow and warm, as Elena describes the new onesie she bought for Marco. 

“Mm. Sounds cute.” 

Elena pauses, says, “And you sound tired. I’ll let you sleep.”

“Wait.” Something occurs to Maggie, even in her muddled state. “Why’d you call me so late?”

“Honestly?” Elena says. “I figured you’d start spiraling. You tend to overthink things when you’re alone, and you never sleep well when you’re anxious.” 

Vacantly, she wonders how Elena knows these things about her, when Maggie doesn’t even know them about herself. And yet, this time, Elena isn’t exactly right.

“It wasn’t that,” Maggie says; she’s half-asleep now, her mind foggy, words slurred. “I just missed you.”

There isn’t an immediate response, and Maggie falls asleep to silence on the other end of the phone. Once her breathing evens out, Elena inhales slowly, says, “I love you.”

She waits another ten seconds, then hangs up the phone.

* * * * *

When Maggie slips through the front door at noon holding two bags of takeout, Elena greets her with an enthusiastic kiss. 

“Thank you, you’re a life saver.” Elena takes the two paper bags from her and drops them on the counter. “What’d you get?” 

“I stopped by that new Thai place you love,” Maggie says. “The fancy one. Got all your favorites.”

“You’re amazing.” 

She turns to kiss Maggie again, slow and sweet, and her arms curve loosely around her neck. That first kiss turns into several, and Maggie wraps her arms around Elena’s waist, pulling her impossibly close. She breathes in the subtle scent of Elena’s perfume, light and floral, and kisses her with a rare kind of urgency. They trade one bruising kiss after another, and the intensity only grows, until Elena breaks away with a laugh.

“I guess you really did miss me.”

Her smile is easy, unburdened, and Maggie wonders if it’s possible to love someone too much. 

She exhales slowly, gently removes Elena’s arms from around her neck and takes a step back.

“Okay, let’s eat some of this food.”

Elena starts unpacking the containers. She’s barely halfway through when Marco starts wailing through the baby monitor. Elena lets her head fall forward in defeat.

“I swear, that kid wants me to starve. I can’t step away for ten seconds without-”

Maggie places her hands on Elena’s shoulders. “Hey, I’ve got him. You eat.”

“No, that’s…” Elena glances back at the food, torn. “You really don’t have to.”

“Sit. Eat,” Maggie says, heading for the bedroom. “I’ll get him.”

Elena bites her lip, seems like she might start to protest, but the second Maggie rounds the corner, she eagerly starts opening up the cartons of food. 

Marco’s wailing is muted by the door separating Elena’s room from the living room; Maggie opens it and heads straight for the bassinet. Marco is lying there on his back, tiny hands grasping at air, and yeah, it turns out Elena was telling the truth: the kid is pretty adorable. 

Quickly, Maggie lifts him up, settling him snugly in the crook of her arm, close to her chest. She rocks him back and forth, and at first he fusses a little, but eventually the soothing motion calms him down. He stares up at Maggie with big, dark eyes, eyes that are the same brown as Elena’s. 

Maggie slowly sits down on the edge of the queen bed, careful not to jostle the baby. 

“Okay, kid, here’s the deal,” she says. “I need you to be really, really quiet for a while. That means no crying. Zero. Because if you start crying, your Aunt Elena is gonna rush in here and pick you up, and then she won’t get to finish any of the expensive food I got her. And that would be very uncool of you, especially since I spent almost sixty bucks on it.”

Marco is sucking noisily on a few of his fingers; he tries to babble, but the sound is muffled. 

“Yeah, I know.” Maggie releases an exaggerated sigh. “New York prices are insane.” 

Then Marco reaches up with those same, drool-covered fingers, to grasp at her hair. After a few unsuccessful attempts, he manages to grab a small fistful of it, and tugs hard. There isn’t any pain, though (there hardly ever is), so Maggie lets him keep tugging.

“You like my hair?” she says dubiously. “I dunno, I prefer yours. Dark and soft; your aunt has hair like that.”

Marco starts cooing, an enthusiastic stream of nonsense. Maggie releases a huff of amusement. 

“Jesus, you could be fucking trash-talking me right now and I wouldn’t even know it.”

More babbling, this time a little softer. 

“You’re cute, though,” she says. “I’ll give you that.”

Marco smiles up at her, wide and sweet, then sneezes right in her face. 

“Really, Marco?”

The door to the bedroom creaks and Maggie looks up. Elena is leaning against the doorjamb, watching her with a smile softer than any she’s ever received. She holds up the baby monitor and bites her lip.

“You were spying on me?” 

“A little,” Elena admits. “You’re good with him.”

“He’s easy to please. I, on the other hand, was a nightmare at this age.” Maggie smiles up at Elena. “You?”

“My sister was the demon baby,” Elena says, crossing the room to sit beside her. The mattress dips a bit, and their shoulders brush. “In comparison, I was a dream.”

They both go quiet for a minute or so, as Marco squirms in Maggie’s arms and lets out the occasional stream of babbling. Elena tickles his tummy and makes a silly face; Marco grins. It’s undeniably cute, and Maggie likes the feel of holding him against her. 

“You ever think about what kind of baby you’d have?” Elena asks; she leans against Maggie, interlaces their fingers. “Whether the baby would look like you, or-”

Maggie cuts her off with a laugh. “Oh, God, no. I’m never having a baby.”

Elena stiffens beside her. “Never?”

“My powers, they end with me,” Maggie explains simply. “I’m not gonna let them fuck up anyone else.”

“Maggie…”

“When I was younger, I hurt a lot of people. And most of it wasn’t on purpose.”

Elena squeezes her arm, doesn’t look at her. “I know.”

“Anyway, doesn’t matter.” Maggie rolls her shoulders back. “It was a long time ago.”

Marco squawks and his face starts to screw up.

“He’s hungry.” Elena rises to her feet a little too eagerly. “I’ll get his bottle.”

* * * * *

Elena is pretty quiet for the rest of the afternoon. She plays with Marco, and responds if Maggie asks her a direct question, but otherwise she doesn’t say much of anything. Maggie figures she’s probably tired; taking care of a baby seems like it takes a lot of energy, and Elena’s been watching him since eight in the morning. 

Nina’s conference ends at five, so around four, she says her goodbyes.

“I’m gonna head out,” she says, pressing a quick kiss to Elena’s cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow."

Elena nods, her eyes still on Marco. “Okay.”

Then Maggie takes Marco’s little hand and smiles. “Bye, you.”

* * * * *

Nina and Marco leave Sunday afternoon. On her way over to Elena's, Maggie passes a charming shop in midtown and sees a nice arrangement of magnolias in the window display. They’re pretty, Maggie thinks, and Elena likes (deserves) pretty things, so Maggie gets them.

When Elena opens the door to let her into the apartment, Maggie is already smiling.

“Here,” she says, offering up the flowers in lieu of a greeting. 

Elena presses her lips together. “I don’t need apology flowers,” she says. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Apology flowers?” Maggie squints at her. “No, I…you’re mad at me?”

Elena’s lips part in an almost-smile, and she looks like she’s caught between irritation and amusement. Irritation seems to be dominating.

“You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you? God.”

Elena turns to head inside, and Maggie follows close behind her, kicking the door shut with the back of her shoe. She watches Elena sink down into the couch cushions and start rubbing at her forehead with one hand. She does that when she has a headache, or when she’s trying not to cry. Based on the set jaw and the general body language, Maggie guesses it’s the second one. 

“Hey.” Maggie sinks to her knees in front of Elena, watches her face screw up in frustration. “What’s going on?”

Elena closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, then opens them.

“Our conversation yesterday,” she says, her eyes trained on her lap. “I just…you’ve never mentioned that you didn’t want kids before. Ever. And it just…threw me a little.”

Maggie frowns, thinks back to yesterday. “I didn’t say-”

“Because whenever I’ve thought about our future together, what it would look like, I always imagined there’d be kids. And a house. That you’d want to start a family with me. Not right now, not soon, but…one day.”

Elena’s voice wavers the more she speaks, and by the time she reaches the end, she looks about ready to cry. And even though it’s all just a big misunderstanding, Maggie still kind of aches for her.

“Hey,” she says, clasping Elena’s hands in her own. “Hey, look at me.”

Elena takes a shaky breath, but she does lift her head up to look at Maggie. Her cheeks are lightly flushed, and she’s fighting back tears. 

“We can have kids.” 

Elena blinks at her. “What?”

Maggie presses a soft, reverent kiss to Elena’s fingers. “We can. Okay? As many as you want.”

Elena releases a sad sort of laugh. “Maggie…”

“I don’t want to have my own kids,” she says. “Not if it means passing on my powers. But I never said I didn’t want yours.”

Elena blinks at her, doesn’t quite follow. “What?”

“I’m not getting pregnant,” Maggie says plainly. “That’s what I meant the other day. But we can have kids. It would be pretty cool to have a mini-you running around the apartment.”

Maggie imagines it for a second, a little girl with dark hair and Elena’s smile. And she knows with absolute certainty that a kid like that would have her wrapped around her finger in a heartbeat. 

Elena is staring at her now, half-hopeful. “Maggie,” she says slowly. “You have to tell me right now if it isn’t what you want. We’ll work through it, okay? You can’t just say yes to make me happy.”

“I’m not,” Maggie insists. “Babe, I’m gonna make a great dad. Y’know, minus the emotional distancing.”

Elena’s laugh is watery. “Okay.” She wipes at her cheeks with the back of her hand. “So, you’re saying I spent the whole day worried about nothing?”

“Yup. And you cried.” Maggie leans in and lowers her voice to a whisper. “I’m a little embarrassed for you.”

Elena gives her a playful shove, and even though she hardly feels it, Maggie lets it push her back a few inches. They’re both smiling, and the tension is gone. Maggie clambers up onto the couch, and before she can properly settle, Elena is straddling her and pulling her into a kiss.

Maggie eagerly kisses back, but just as the kiss starts to deepen, Elena breaks away. 

“I love you,” she says, and Maggie’s heart swells. “I love you so much it scares me.”

Maggie presses a feather-light kiss to her nose. “I love you, too,” she says. “Don’t be scared.”

Elena tilts her head like she’s going to kiss her again, but then winces.

“Crap, the flowers. I’m so sorry, that was really sweet of you. I’ll go put them in water before they-”

“Hey, relax, they’re just flowers,” Maggie says, gently tugging her back. “I’ll buy you some more tomorrow.” 

Elena fights back a smile. “Okay.”

Maggie waits a few seconds, then says, “I hope we have a girl first.”

Elena shifts in her lap. She’s smiling fully now. 

“I do, too.”


End file.
